Fundraising musings

Thoughts on crisis fundraising:

1. It pays to have PR relationships in place before a disaster
2. Sometimes, the search engines are baffling. Yahoo did not start running Katrina ads until today. No explanation.
3. Keep your directory listings current and call the list owners as soon as you know you will be participating in relief efforts. These lists like Network for Good, Charity Navigator and Mission Fish are picked up by the media and are duplicated throughout the web.
4. Even paid advertising relationships should be established before a disaster. The Hunger Site refused other paying charities in order to offer Mercy Corps "first dibs."
5. Have a plan that includes roles, responsibilities, technical capacity of servers, additional resources should you need them - and definitely a signoff process for tasks and budget.

Personal thoughts on the relief effort - there is no shortage of work. It's surreal to be referring to American refugees and possible cholera outbreaks. Search and Rescue workers have to get shots before heading down there - like international relief workers. Support as many worthy charities as you can. There is no way one organization can do it all. It will take a lot of efforts from a lot of groups.

-Heather